Device for connecting a boiler to a penthouse

ABSTRACT

A device for sealingly connecting a boiler to its penthouse including a corrugated, rigid plate-like structure attached to the boiler and to the penthouse. The corrugations extend in two directions to accommodate movements of the boiler relative to the penthouse in two directions in a first plane. The dimension of the plate-like structure in a direction corresponding to the distance between the boiler and the penthouse is such as to accommodate movements of the boiler relative to the penthouse in two directions in a plane perpendicular to the above-mentioned plane.

United States Patent 91 Reale et a1.

[ Mar. 26, 1974 [54] DEVICE FOR CONNECTING A BOILER T0 A PENTHOUSE [75] Inventors: Salvatore J. Reale, Wayne; Clarence C. Eich, Mountain Lakes; Walter J. Van Dyke, Wycoff; Rajnikant P. Dave, Parsippany, all of N.J.; Gilbert C. Whitney, deceased, late of Dansville, NY. by Virginia E. Whitney, executrix [73] Assignee: Foster Wheeler Corporation,

Livingston, NJ. by said Salvatore J. Reale, Clarence C. Eich, Walter J. Van Dyke and Rajnikant P. Dave [22] Filed: June 30, 1972 21] Appl. No.: 267,855

[52] US. Cl. 122/494 [51] Int. Cl. F22b 37/36 [58] Field of Search 122/6 A, 494, 510

[5 6] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Bernstein 122/494 3,479,994 11/1969 Kreider et a1 122/494 3,612,006 10/1971 Santucci 3,688,746 9/1972 Newitts et a1 122/494 Primary Examiner-William F. ODea Assistant Examiner-Peter D. Ferguson Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Marvin A. Naigur; John E. Wilson [5 7] ABSTRACT A device for sealingly connecting a boiler to its penthouse including a corrugated, rigid plate-like structure attached to the boiler and to the penthouse. The corrugations extend in two directions to accommodate movements of the boiler relative to the penthouse in two directions in a first plane. The dimension of the plate-like structure in a direction corresponding to the distance between the boiler and the penthouse is such as to accommodate movements of the boiler relative to the penthouse in two directions in a plane perpendicular to the above-mentioned plane.

5 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTEB i974 SHEET 2 0F 2 DEVICE FOR CONNECTING A BOILER TO A PENTHOUSE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a penthouse enclosure for a boiler and more particularly to such an enclosure adapted to insulate the upper portion of the boiler to prevent heat losses.

Many modern boilers must often be designed to allow pipes and/or other conduits present within, or forming a part of, the boiler walls, to project upwardly from the top of the boiler. As a result, various covers, commonly known as penthouses, have been designed to cover the openings formed in the top of the boiler for accommodating these projecting pipes to prevent heat losses from the interior of the boiler.

In such arrangements, it has also been found advantageous to pressurize the interior of the penthouse in order to prevent corrosive gases from passing from the boiler into the penthouse and causing corrosion to the various components therein. However, it has been found extremely difficult to maintain the proper pressure inside the penthouse, largely due to the fact that the boiler, during its operation, expands more than the penthouse, since the boiler is normally subjected to much higher temperatures than its penthouse. As a result, it has been extremely difficult to maintain a proper sealing connection between the boiler and the penthouse since any member or members providing the connection are subjected to severe stresses due to the expansion and contraction of the boiler relative to the penthouse.

The above problem is somewhat compounded due to the fact that both the penthouse and the boiler are normally hung from structural supports, such as ceiling beams or the like, by members which are heated by heat conducted from the boiler and the penthouse. Since the members which connect the boiler to the supports are heated to a higher temperature than the temperature of the members which connect the penthouse to the supports, the boiler will sag downwardly more than the penthouse during operation.

In order to overcome these problems, it has been proposed to design the penthouses with a flat horizontal bottom wall extending inwardly from its side walls to the outer wall of the boiler, with a U-shaped expansion hump or corrugation being provided, in this to accommodate some of the relative movement between boiler and the penthouse.

However, in view of the fact that an expanding or contracting boiler will move relative to its penthouse in several directions, these type penthouses, although possibly compensating for the relative movement in one direction, are defective in compensating for the relative movement in all directions. As a result, stresses occur in certain areas of the connecting members which often lead to failure, leakage, and damage to the various components.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a device adapted to connect a penthouse to its boiler in a manner that will accommodate relative movement between the penthouse and boiler in three directions and thus overcome the problems noted above.

Toward the fulfillment of this and other objects, the present invention comprises a rigid plate-like structure attached to each of said members, said structure being corrugated with the corrugations extending in two directions to accommodate relative movements between said members in two directions in a first plane, the dimension of said structure in a direction corresponding to the distance between said members being such as to accommodate relative movements between said members in two directions in a plane perpendicular to said first plane.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a fragmentary view, partly in section, of the device of the present invention shown connecting a boiler to a penthouse;

FIG. 2 is a reduced horizontal sectional view taken along the line 22 of FIG. 1 with redundant portions of the structure being shown by dash lines; and

FIG. 3 is a partial, exploded, perspective view of a portion of the device of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring specifically to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, the reference numeral 10 refers in general to a penthouse which extends over a boiler 12 for preventing heat losses from the upper portion of the boiler.

The outer walls 14 of the penthouse are spaced from the outer walls 16 of the boiler with the latter being formed by a series of spaced tubes connected by a rigid flat structure in a conventional manner. The top 18 of the penthouse 10 extends over the top 20 ofthe boiler 12 in a spaced relation thereto, it being understood that the latter top is provided with openings to permit pipes and other conduits (not shown) to project outwardly therefrom.

The majority of arrangements of this type are suspended from support structures such as a ceiling beam (not shown), or the like, by means of tie rods 22 and 24 which connect the tops 18 and 20 of the penthouse and boiler, respectively, to the support structure so that the boiler and the penthouse are suspended from the ceiling of the structure.

The bottom edge of the walls 14 of the penthouse are connected to the outer surfaces of the walls 16 of the boiler by means of a plurality of plates shown in FIG. 2. In particular, four rectangular plates 30 join the parallel wall portions 14 and 16 of the penthouse and boiler, respectively, four corner plates 32 are provided at the corners between the boiler and the penthouse, and eight plates 34 connect the corner plates 32 to the plates 30. Only the structure details of one corner plate 32 and two plates 30 and 34, as well as the associated structure of the boiler 12 are shown in FIG. 2, for convenience of presentation.

The plates 30 are formed with a plurality of corrugations 30a extending perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the plates 30, the comer plates 32 are provided with a plurality of arcuate corrugations 32a, and the connecting plates 34 are provided with a plurality of corrugations 34a which extend parallel to the corrugations 30a of the plates 30.

As shown in FIG. 3, the outer edges of each plate 32 are connected to an outer wall 36 projecting vertically from the outer edges of the plate 32. As is apparent from FIG. 3 the cross-sectional shape of the plate 32 is generally arcuate, with a portion 32b of the plate extending in a generally vertical direction and being shaped to extend over and in engagement with the corner defined by the adjacent side walls 16 of the boiler 12.

Each plate 30 is also generally arcuate shaped in cross section and has an upturned, generally vertical portion 30b which is generally co-planar with the corresponding portion of the vertical wall 36.

Each plate 34 is also generally arcuate in cross section and has a non-corrugated portion 34b with one side edge thereof corresponding in shape to the adjacent side edge of the corresponding portion of the vertical wall 36 and the other side edge corresponding in shape to the adjacent side edge of the plate 30, in order to connect the latter plate to the plate 32.

Since the plates 30, 32, and 34 are of a rigid material such as steel, it is understood that the connections between the plates and penthouse and boiler may be made any manner compatible with this material, such as by welding.

Due to the above-mentioned forms of the plates 30, 32, and 34, the dimension of each plate between the parallel edges thereof that are connected to the side walls 14 and 16 is greater than the distance between the side walls as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3. As a result, the plates 30, 32, and 34 will accommodate the abovementioned vertical movements of the boiler 12 relative to the penthouse 10.

Also, the corrugations 30a, 32a and 34b accommodate relative movement of the boiler 12 relative to the penthouse in two directions in a horizontal plane, with the arcuate corrugations 32a relieving any stress that would otherwise occur in the corner areas due to these movements.

It is apparent from the foregoing that the connecting plates of the present invention provide an effective sealing connection between the boiler and the penthouse while accommodating all relative movements therebetween.

It is understood that several variations may be made in the foregoing without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A device for sealingly connecting a first member having at least two vertical walls defining a corner to a second member having at least two vertical walls defining a corner, the walls of said second member extending parallel to the respective corresponding walls of said first member and spaced therefrom, said device comprising first corrogated plate means connecting the walls of said first member to their respective corresponding walls of said second member, and second corrogated plate means connecting the respective corners of said first and second members, said first and second plate means extending from a first connection plane at one of said members to a second connection plane at the other of said member and extending below said first connection plane, said plate means having a smooth curved cross-section extending between said connection planes to accommodate relative movement between said members.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein each of said plate means consists of a substantially horizontal portion extending between said members and two additional portions integral with said horizontal portion, said additional portions extending at an angle with respect to said horizontal portion and being respectively connected to said members.

3. The device of claim 1 further comprising third corrogated plate means connecting said first and second plate means.

4. The device of claim 1 wherein the corrogations of said first plate means extend perpendicular to its respective walls and along its entire length.

5. The device of claim 1 wherein the corrogations of said second plate means are arcuate-shaped. 

1. A device for sealingly connecting a first member having at least two vertical walls defining a corner to a second member having at least two vertical walls defining a corner, the walls of said second member extending parallel to the respective corresponding walls of said first member and spaced therefrom, said device comprising first corrogated plate means connecting the walls of said first member to their respective corresponding walls of said second member, and second corrogated plate means connecting the respective corners of said first and second members, said first and second plate means extending from a first connection plane at one of said members to a second connection plane at the other of said member and extending below said first connection plane, said plate means having a smooth curved crosssection extending between said connection planes to accommodate relative movement between said members.
 2. The device of claim 1 wherein each of said plate means consists of a substantially horizontal portion extending between said members and two additional portions integral with said horizontal portion, said additional portions extending at an angle with respect to said horizontal portion and being respectively connected to said members.
 3. The device of claim 1 further comprising third corrogated plate means connecting said first and second plate means.
 4. The device of claim 1 wherein the corrogations of said first plate means extend perpendicular to its respective walls and along its entire length.
 5. The device of claim 1 wherein the corrogations of said second plate means are arcuate-shaped. 